Life & Work with Kero One

Today we’d like to introduce you to Kero One.

Hi Kero, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
I grew up on skateboarding and hip hop culture in California, paying dues in freestyle circles, painting graffiti and deejaying since the age of 13. As an avid record collector, I eventually self-released 3,000 copies of my first official vinyl in 2003 called “Check the Blueprints”. At that time, there was no Youtube/Instagram. My style was creating jazz hiphop sound blending live instruments and dusty analog samples and It kinda blew up overseas in the Japan music scene. Independent and very DIY, I quit my career as a web designer shortly after and never looked back.

I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle free, but so far would you say the journey have been a fairly smooth road?
The initial barrier was being Asian in hiphop. Very few “gatekeepers” took my music seriously. Not many, myself included, had ever taken an Asian rapper seriously.

Additionally, years after I made a name for myself, some of my loyal fans couldn’t grasp what my brand was and if I was still an underground rapper. In the mid-2000s, rappers were either underground or mainstream (Kanye West would eventually change that by bridging the two). When Will.I.Am reached out to me, fans asked why would I ever collaborate with pop stars like Will.i.am because that would be selling out. Some asked, what’s this foreign genre I was so involved with called K-pop? But for me, I always did what I liked, and fans that came along for the ride understood what u was trying to do with my lyrics, feel-good jazzy vibes and/or lofi beats laced with musical live instrumentation. Doing what I liked meant I would continuously evolve, growing from a self-produced rapper to my most recent alias “Kero Uno”, for producing other singers.

Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
Mostly known for resurrecting the jazz hiphop sound with live instruments in the early 2000s and being part of the international kpop/rap wave before it got super big.

I play instruments, make beats, songwriting/arranging, rap and dj. I also used to actively write graffiti and a little b-boying so I’ve been known as a swift army knife of hiphop hah.

If you had to, what characteristic of yours would you give the most credit to?
Loving what I do, focusing on what makes me happy with music, working hard and connecting with all kinds of people

At the end of the day, it’s loving what I do and focusing on what makes me happy with music. I never started doing this as a career for any other reason than that. Working hard and connecting with all kinds of people also helps. But I’m humble and nice when I meet people, not “I’ll be nice if I can get something out of this person” nice. I hate that. When you meet people who do that, you can smell it a mile away.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.kero1.com
• Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/keroone
• Youtube: https://linktr.ee/keroone

Image Credits
Tommi lim (main photo only)